News that the Spencer-East Brookfield Regional School District has a $2 million budget deficit had Spencer Town Administrator Adam Gaudette at work on Friday — normally a day off because Town Hall is closed.

Now, he's sure things will change because no matter how the school committee decides to address the problem, the taxpayers will be affected.

“If they borrow the money from the state, we will have to pay it back,” he said. “And that's just for this fiscal year.”

Local officials are already speculating that if the current year's budget is $2 million short, they'll have to expect an increase of at least that much in the school's fiscal 2014 budget request.

School Committee members revealed the deficit at a meeting Thursday night. Richard Scortino, whose LinkedIn profile describes him as an “Independent Education Management Professional,” said he had reviewed the budget created by Superintendent Reza Namin and found several underfunded line items.

At least one of those was funded with the anticipation that a grant would be used to cover the cost — but the grant never came.

Mr. Gaudette said part of the problem might be how the school department's budget is presented to the towns. Regional school districts, such as Spencer-East Brookfield, have more leeway than one-town districts.

“It would be impossible for this to happen on the town side,” he said. “Because we can't change line items.”

In the school budget, if there's an overage in one account, it can be used to cover a deficit in another without a town meeting vote.

When the school department presents a budget at a town meeting, voters typically see just the bottom line, not a list of specific line items like they do in the town's budget.

Regardless of how the deficit came about, taxpayers will, at some point, have to come up with additional funds and since the town doesn't have an extra $2 million — or even the 83 percent that would be Spencer's share — the most likely solution is an override.

“And we can't do that in this fiscal year,” Mr. Gaudette explained. “We've sent out tax bills, done our recap sheet … that ship has sailed.”

Meanwhile, Mr. Namin remains on paid administrative leave, and school committee members have been meeting behind closed doors using Open Meeting Law exemptions to discuss his contract and some communications with their attorney.

While some have called for his dismissal, others are waiting to see if he is the one to blame.

Spencer selectmen plan to review the budget over the weekend and are preparing questions for the three school committee members who will meet with them Monday night.

Mr. Gaudette said he hopes to have more information about how the two towns will be affected and what he can do to prepare for the additional expenses he now expects to see in fiscal 2014.